Life is the most precious thing to each and everyone of us, and yet we all take it for granted. On January 1, 2012 my little cousin and a young woman died, and three others were injured in a freak car crash on an empty expressway. The mother of one of the surviving passengers told my aunt, in an extremely serious tone, “I truly sympathize for you, because I would have just died had that been my son. My children are the reason I wake up everyday.”
In the streets there is a “code,” an unwritten rule that all, whether willing or unwilling, must follow. This code is referred to as the “No Snitching” code. What that means is, if you are the witness to a crime or have information that, if released, would cause harm to another individual then you are responsible for keeping your mouth shut. You cannot inform the police, nor can you cooperate with them if questioned about said information. If a person is found guilty, or there is suspicion that he/she is snitching , then by the unwritten rule of the streets, that person retaliation must be taken against that person. Back in 2003 a friend of mine, named Joe, witnessed his close friend Tom get murdered. Joe grew up in the streets, and he was well aware of the code, also what could happened to him if he snitched. Joe didn’t allow this to deter him from doing the right thing, so he fully cooperated with authorities, and even testified in court against the murderer.
When I was a kid there a neighborhood preacher that made it his job to see us grow up into good honorable people. He would allow us to hang out in the church, so that we would not be in the streets. If there was little jobs to be done he would pay us to do them. Also, he was full of little quotes that were constantly being shared with us, regardless of protests. A couple of quotes that really stuck out to me as I write this paper are: “God is the only one that can give life, and he is the only one that can take life away,” and also “Everything we do s because God wants us to , whether we know it or not.” Well, one Sunday morning, because of a previous altercation with the preacher, some knuckleheads decided they were going to shoot up the church during service. The shooting caught everyone off-guard and seemed to last for hours. After the shooting stopper the preacher jumped into his car to chase the two guys down. Unfortunately he ended up running them both over, killing them instantly. Shortly afterwards the preacher came back to the church, turned to the congregation and gave us on last reiteration of his most famous quote: “Everything we do is because God wants us to, whether we know it or not.”
These stories all have a central theme, and that theme is a person’s perspective on the value of life, whether it is his own or that of another person. I was presented with the following questions: “What do you live for?” “What would you die for?” and “What would you kill for?” I was instructed to write in depth about my response to these questions. Just viewing them at face value I believed this to be an easy task that I could complete quickly, which is why I waited until the day before the assignment is due to start on it. Unfortunately after sitting down and seriously thinking on these questions I realized there is more to these question than I assumed, and that is why it’s 2 o’clock Monday morning and I am still working on a paper that is due in five hours.
I my first example the mother of the injured child gives a very clear yet unstated answer to our first question of “What do you live for?” Her answer, in case you were not paying attention, is that she lives for her children. Initially my answer was exactly the same as her’s. My children mean the world to me, and they are a huge motivation for me to keep striving to better myself. As I was writing that down in my outline I thought about how I used to volunteer five days a week at a children’s hospital. I thought about how I donated my car to a charity that helps to feed hungry children. Also, I thought about how I really want to be a pediatrician, but mentally and emotionally I can’t because I cannot bare to see even one child that has been the victim of child abuse. This led me to realize that my previous answer was not all inclusive. My true reasons for living are not only my children, but also all of the children in the world who are not in the safest, most loving, and nourishing environments. Somewhere they can grow up to be smart, healthy, and successful adults. Our children are the most precious things in the world, which is why I strive my hardest to succeed. I don’t do it for a big house and fancy cars, but so I can set a good example for all children and make enough money to fund a chain of nonprofits organizations.
Going back to Joe, I can honestly say that he is a honorable person for standing up for what was right. I wish I was as honorable has Joe, because I don’t think I would risk getting killed just to put someone else in jail.Joe’s answer to the question of “What would you die for?” is quite obvious. Joe would give his life when it comes to justice for his loved ones. This question was by far the easiest one, because I have already, on countless occasions, pondered deeply about this. There are actually a few things I would die for. I would die to save the life of any innocent person that happens to be in danger. Innocent people dying bothers me, because a person is losing his/her life who does not deserve to die. Another negative effect is that not that person’s family has to deal with unjustly losing a loved one.
I would also, give my life to save that of a family member. I have a very big and very close knit family. My family is so close that the majority of them do not have friends or entertain the company of anyone that is not family. In the last mont of 2011 I attended the funerals of three family members, and as I previously stated, I lost a cousin on the first day of 2012 and that makes four funerals in a months time. I know death is the only certainty in life, but all of those deaths so close together have really taken a toll on my family. I would gladly give the my own life if I could prevent my family from having to go through that pain again. I know this is a bit contradictory, because if I give my life so my family will not have to mourn the death of someone else, then that would force them to mourn the loss of me. I guess then what I really mean is that I would give my life not to witness my family having to mourn the loss of another loved one. That is kind of selfish of me, but aren’t we all a bit selfish at times?
Lastly, I believe the thing that I would be mostly willing to die for is the well being of the children in this world. Our children are innocently blank slabs just waiting to be filled with love, knowledge, and care. All of our children deserve an equal chance at being all that he/she can be. If there was a way that feed and educate all, or even most, of the children of the world I would gladly sacrifice my life for that cause, because in the words of Whitney Houston “I believe that children are our future.”
This by far is going to be the shortest section of my writing. The reason I say this is because there is no reason whatsoever that would compel me to take the life of another human being. I am a firm believer that God is the only one that can give life and the onle one that can take it away. Of the two statements the preacher used to tell us, I don’t agree with the latter. I say this because if all of our actions are the product of God’s wants, then that would mean we as humans are nothing more than, in so many words, characters in a gigantic video game being played by the man upstairs. If that was the case then the whole concept of our so called consciousness would be void. I do not believe God would force anyone to take the life of another. Death via the hands of another person is torturous and horrendous, and God does not deliberately inflict torture upon his children. Initially I thought this paragraph to be no more than a few lines, but it turned out to be quite lengthy, which shows how a person can babble on and on when discussing a topics that interests him.
Every one of us are under the impression that we know ourselves without a reasonable doubt, but it takes simple yet monument questions such as these to throw us on our heads. We all understand that we have a life, most of us have heard stories of someone dying for a cause, and we all have heard of someone taking the life of another, but can all of you give a seriou, thoughtful, and honest answer to these questions? I thought I could spout some answers from the top of my head, but as I look at the clock which reads 5:56 a.m. and count these six pages of notebook paper I have written on, I have been proven wrong. There is a lot that I learned about myself while writing this paper, and I feel as though I have been reintroduced to myself. I recommend that you take the time to introduce you to yourself, and a great way to begin that introduction is to sit down and serious ponder on these three questions: “What do you live for? What would you die for? and What would you kill for?”
